Search this blog

Subscribe To

"Never under any condition should this nation look at an immigrant as primarily a labor unit. He should always be looked at primarily as a future citizen."-Theodore Roosevelt, 1917

"It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people."-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Isaona i tumungo’ ya ha sedi, ki ayo i mismo umisagui hao. Greater is the fault of he who allows the injustice upon himself. "-Chamorro proverb

"There can be no tyrants where there are no slaves." -Jose Rizal

"I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights." -Bishop Desmond Tutu

Disclaimer: This is not a legal blog. No opinion or statement should be perceived as legal advice. All posts are the opinion of the author or contributors who are expressing their First Amendment Rights.

Kay Chernush for the U.S. State Department. Customers/exploiters come from all over the world. Legalized or tolerated prostitution is a magnet for sex trafficking. The U.S. Government considers prostitution to be "inherently demeaning and dehumanizing," and opposes efforts to legalize it. The PROTECT Act makes it illegal for an American to sexually abuse a minor in another country. Perpetrators can receive up to 30 years in jail. (Text and photo from U.S. Department of State "Images of Human Trafficking", a photo gallery)

June 17, 2009

Yesterday the U.S. Department of State released the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report. The report is mandated by Congress. A total of 52 countries and territories were placed on the "watchlist". The number represents a 30 percent increase in the number of countries placed on the list in 2008, but it was explained that 175 countries were ranked this year as opposed to 153 in 2008. The Department of State describes the report:

The 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report on 175 nations is the most comprehensive worldwide report on the efforts of governments to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons. Its findings will raise global awareness and spur countries to take effective actions to counter trafficking in persons.

The annual Trafficking in Persons Report serves as the primary diplomatic tool through which the U.S. Government encourages partnership and increased determination in the fight against forced labor, sexual exploitation, and modern-day slavery.

The report is 347 pages and can be downloaded from the Department of State web site.

I didn't read the entire report yet because of the length, but it looks like a useful resource.

Human trafficking is defined in American law and international agreements as obtaining or maintaining the labor or services of another through force, coercion, and, in effect, modern slavery. In the introduction to the report, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in part:

The ninth annual Trafficking in Persons Report sheds light on the faces of modern-day slavery and on new facets of this global problem. The human trafficking phenomenon affects virtually every country, including the United States. In acknowledging America’s own struggle with modern-day slavery and slavery-related practices, we offer partnership. We call on every government to join us in working to build consensus and leverage resources to eliminate all forms of human trafficking. This year, there is new urgency in this call. As the ongoing financial crisis takes an increasing toll on many of the world’s migrants – who often risk everything for the slim hope of a better future for their families – too often they are ensnared by traffickers who exploit their desperation. We recognize their immense suffering, and we commit to aiding their rescue and recovery.

As we move forward to meet the challenges of today, I am committed to sharing the lessons learned from our past efforts, and I offer our collective expertise to collaborate with you in bringing relief to victims, justice to perpetrators, and hope to future generations currently in peril.

Bringing an end to the global trade in people is a priority for the United States in keeping with American values that place a premium on human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. I am confident that together we can make a difference, all over the world, in the lives of people deprived of their freedom.

One of the things that we find very important, and that I certainly can’t stress enough, is that the fight against human trafficking is something that was established in the Clinton Administration through the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which is something that then-First Lady Hillary Clinton worked very hard on. It was a bipartisan law, and it had bipartisan effect. In fact, it was something that the Bush Administration was very committed to working on once they came in, and the same is true of the Obama Administration.

I think today’s press event upstairs, the cable that the Secretary is sending to the diplomatic corps here in the United States and abroad is something that is a marker as far as not just a continuation of the commitment of the Bush Administration to fighting human trafficking and modern slavery, but an intensification on the part of Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration.

I think that that’s something that those of us who have worked in the field, whether it’s here at the State Department, people like myself who have been federal prosecutors out investigating the cases, working with the NGOs, I think that’s something that we’re seeing a lot of positive response to from the anti-trafficking community worldwide. And I think that we’re going to hopefully see an improvement in the coming year as far as the counter-trafficking response.

Two things that I would like to leave you with, and one of which is the notion that because we are in a time of economic crisis, and especially workers, especially foreign guest workers are particularly vulnerable because of the way in which recruitment is often – is too often done, we see a problem in the guest worker programs both abroad and here in the United States, and a number of the tier rankings are affected by countries having large guest worker programs that do not have any safeguards built into them.

We saw this in the United States in our territorial possession of Saipan, which had its own guest worker laws in the 1990s. Those guest worker laws have now been overturned by Congress last year. But one of the situations that we saw there is exactly what replicates itself in too many countries around the world, which is the notion that the first step that the boss has when dealing with labor unrest, when dealing with people who are asking just for minimum amounts of food or minimum amounts of pay, the notion that they would withdraw their sponsorship, have the persons deported, cut off any labor activism, cut off any attempts to try to make the workplace better by punishing the workers who would dare to speak back.

That punishment should not be something that the government in any way is complicit in. And yet, guest worker programs both here in the United States and abroad far too often have been used in that manner. The United States passed a law, the Trafficking Reauthorization Act, in December, in which we actually addressed that situation. And one of the recommendations in the Attorney General’s annual report is that we do a top-down review of our guest worker programs to see if there are additional protections that need to be put into place. And we would certainly encourage other countries as well to do that same type of review of their guest worker programs.

At the end of the day, though, it’s not about administrative responses, it’s not about structural responses; it’s about the fact that this is a crime. It is one of the most serious crimes that is out there. The slavery and involuntary servitude that the traffickers hold their victims in is something that cannot simply be remedied by having different immigration structures, by having labor inspectors, by having different policies about various things. Rather, it can only be dealt with by investigating and prosecuting the people who dare to do this.

And so we certainly stand ready, not just abroad but also at home, for those countries who would like to engage, for those countries who are willing to do the same type of self-assessment that we did in the Attorney General’s report which was also released today, where we look at what are the strengths, what are the weaknesses of the United States Government’s response. For those countries who are willing to engage in that type of partnership, the trafficking office here at the State Department, the Justice Department and the rest of the U.S. Government stands ready to partner.

Yes, PL 110-229 should end the CNMI guest worker program, but that has not happened yet.

Unlike the annual human rights report, in this report the United States is included (at least in the charts). The countries in the report are classified in one of three tiers:

TIER 2Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards,but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

TIER 2 WATCH LISTCountries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards AND:a) The absolute number of victims of sever forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing; orb) There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year; orc) The determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year.

TIER 3Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.

As expected some countries are outraged at finding themselves on the Watchlist and with being classified as Teir 3. The Tier 3 countries are:

Malaysia was one country that decried the classification. From the Associated Press

Abu Seman said the Malaysian government did not condone human trafficking and had taken stern action to deal with the problem, including enacting an anti-human trafficking law in 2007 and setting up a special task force.

The report said that while the Malaysian government took early steps to fight sex trafficking, it has yet to fully tackle labour trafficking.

It said there were "credible allegations", including those in a US Senate report this year, that some immigration officials took part in trafficking and extorting refugees from Myanmar.

Malaysia, which is listed with 16 other countries, including six newly-added African nations, could face sanctions such as the withholding of non-humanitarian, non-trade related US aid.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said recently his country was being used as a transit point for illegal immigrants.

Recent incidents include the arrests of 17 Iraqis and seven Indonesians over the weekend after authorities intercepted a boat that was trying to smuggle some of them to Australia via Indonesia.

Authorities have said 12 suspected illegal immigrants were drowned off Malaysia's southern coast in the last two months when they tried to sneak out of the country.

The Manila Times also covered the release of the report, which placed the Philippines on Tier 2:

According to the 2009 US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report for the Philippines, the country was put on Tier 2 Watch List because the government failed to show evidence of progress in convicting human traffickers, particularly those in labor trafficking. The report added the situation here worsened, despite the significant government efforts.

The report described the country as a source, transit and destination country for men, women and children trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. A significant number of Filipino men and women who migrate abroad for work were also subjected to involuntary servitude in Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Palau, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, the report added.

Even Muslim girls from Mindanao were being trafficked to the Middle East by other Muslims, according to the report.

Filipino women were also trafficked abroad for commercial sexual exploitation, primarily to Hong Kong Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and countries in Africa, the Middle East and Western Europe.

The government vowed to intensify its campaign against human trafficking in light of the US report.

“We have to advise authorities, like the Bureau of Immigration, to be on look out for such activity [human trafficking],” Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said. “We won’t tolerate human trafficking and BI should be alerted to be more focused in monitoring not just in the port of Manila but also in Davao, Cebu and Zamboanga.”

He added that he does not believe that the US government would sanction the Philippines for failing to effectively address human- trafficking issues in the country.

“We’re a sovereign state, and we have own laws and legal system,” Ermita said. “I don’t suppose we can be sanctioned if we feel under sovereign state to undertake violations of law like trafficking we can’t be dictated upon. They should respect our sovereignty.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote an op-ed piece that was published in the Washington Post today. She stressed that we have a responsibility to fight human trafficking:

The Obama administration views the fight against human trafficking, at home and abroad, as an important priority on our foreign policy agenda. The United States funds 140 anti-trafficking programs in nearly 70 countries, as well as 42 domestic task forces that bring state and local authorities together with nongovernmental organizations to combat trafficking. But there is so much more to do.

The criminal networks that enslave millions of people cross borders and span continents. Our response must do the same. The United States is committed to building partnerships with governments and organizations around the world, to finding new and more effective ways to take on the scourge of human trafficking. We want to support our partners in their efforts and find ways to improve our own.

Human trafficking flourishes in the shadows and demands attention, commitment and passion from all of us. We are determined to build on our past success and advance progress in the weeks, months and years ahead. Together, we must hold a light to every corner of the globe and help build a world in which no one is enslaved.

13
comments:

The reason Lou de Baca mentioned Saipan is that he prosecuted a slavery case out here when he was at the DoJ Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section, working with then-AUSA Greg Baka. It's great to see someone in his position of Lou's caliber, who really understands the intricacies and back story of situations on the ground.

The human trafficking is one thing. By the exact word meaning of the illegal activity, the person is being forced. I do not condone this activity and it should be prosecuted fully.

NOW, there is another area here that may be counted alongside forced prostitution. It should not be, but is illegal in many countries. One example, Japan recruits many women from the Phil. They are recruited specifically for the Clubs, they are taken to Japan and trained in the language, dancing and pleasures of pleasing a man.This is not only restricted to Filipinas but other nationalities are recruited also.They work for 6 month contract sent back and recontacted again and again.(This is in compliance with their immigration and work laws.)These women are consenting workers, the pay is high, they buy land and build houses back home etc.The Filipina also flock to the bars all over the their own country, from the truck stops along the country roads to the big clubs and hotels, they are all willing participants and are free to change locations at will.Prostitution is illegal in the PI. Also illegal is "mail order brides" But that is an ongoing big business. Even the Manila times has it own 'dating sight"designed for attracting foreigners for marriage.

Germany among other European countries has legalized Prostitution.There are about 500K registered and it constantly changes with the economic times.Nevada in certain counties has been legalized for more than 100 years.

The point being, not all prostitution is forced or coerced.Maybe it is about time to legalize it in the NMI so it can be regulated and taxed etc.It is the oldest game around the world and will never go away, being legal would have an effect in the trafficking parts.The street walkers are not being physically forced in Saipan, they were walking even though employed in the factories.By the way even though prostitution is illigal in many countries the US military still rates the bars and clubs and gives an "A" sign establishment where the girls are clean and have regular health check ups. And some of you thought it was because of the honesty and cleanliness of the clubs themselves. Well!!!

It is a revealing example of the kind of mental blinders that so many people wear to see Mr. De Baca resolving to fight "modern slavery" in all its insidious forms, while in the same breath, and without any apparent recognition of the irony, boasting about what Congress has accomplished in its "territorial possession."

This week in Honolulu, a male and female adult were arrested for forced prostitution involving three female minors.I think the youngest was 12, the oldest 17.

To 9;37 The places that have legalized prostitution have no street walkers. Everything is done in licensed brothels or from call out and in room encounters. The ones that work the street are arrested and suffer heavy penalties.Now you have the girls all over the streets and clubs bothering the tourists, not much unlike Guam, Waikiki, Honolulu and other areas.Vegas, and European nations have taken it off the streets and control it.It will never go away no matter what you do, never has, never will in any part of the world.It was still legal in Japan until the Olympics in the early 60's when they outlawed it because of the tourists, now it on the street and clubs but seldom prosecuted,like many of the Asian countries.Anyway, just a "revenue generating" idea (instead of expense) instead of poker machines and other gambling encounters.

6:35 I am not involved with this prostitution thing, but next time the Military comes into Tinian,go there and drive around and look by the churches, under the overhanging trees, on the street corners, at the beach areas,, at the Dynasty in the rotunda,in the few bars,on the street routes that they(military) are walking, look at what you see, 80% "local" girls and 10% house workers 10% Chinese girls.(By the way even the "Bakluck" are out to score) ALL trying to pick up the US Military for a buck. Many are High school kids. this is real life and not just on Tinian, all the Pacific Islands when you have a big influx of outside people for an event.. It is really so sad but true, that is the reality of life.

7:59 That is why most of the "sex" workers hide it from their families. Remember we are not talking about "forced" prostitution here, there is a difference. All is by choice of the person involved, many do it to survive,some because they enjoy it.I would not like to have anybody that is related or otherwise to be involved in this activities, also as many "specials" that I have seen from the mainland, there are many male prostitutes on the streets also.

Prostitution was legal in the CNMI until around 1992. The weird thing is, there seemed to be a lot more of it after it was banned than there had been before. At least it became a lot more visible.

(It also became more Chinese -- the old legal sex trade was mostly a Filipina thing. Later Filipinas seemed to stick to stripping, which Chinese have never much gone in for. I suspect this results from different cultures arranging their sexual stigmas in different orders of priority.)

Anyway, the high point for both prostitution and stripping was around 1997, when there were karaokes as far north as Achugao (opposite the Aqua Resort), as far south as Rota, and all points in between, along with dozens of strip joints, as opposed to the one or two that survive now.

You could say the trajectory of these enterprises has paralleled the rest of the CNMI economy over the same time period.